Samantha Manz

Samantha Manz is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Originally from Lubbock, TX, Sam currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She graduated from Macalester College with her BA in History and Literature and then attended graduate school at Texas Tech University. In two parts, her thesis focused on the negative stereotypes that American Indians face through eighteenth and nineteenth-century photography, western films, and legislation, and how Indigenous women artists challenge those narratives through visual arts. Sam enjoys studying and writing about Indigenous art, literature, and film. After receiving her Masters in History, Sam received a Fulbright Open Research Award to study Indigenous conservation and repatriation practices at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Then she participated in the Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History where she studied pre- and post-removal of Cherokee basketry. In her free time, Sam can be found walking her dogs, running with the Mill City Running race team, reading a good book, or trying a new baking recipe.